Christmas Wishes Do Come True Once In A Blue Moon
by LisaTurpin1
Summary: Christmas has arrived once more at Hogwarts and a new Ball is to held. Ginny Weasley can't wait until she founds out who her mystery partner is - the last person she ever thought she would be paired up with. Will romance still blossom?


Under Christmas' Spell

****

**SUMMARY:** _It's Christmas time, once again at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and a new; mystery ball is to be held. _

_Ginny Weasley can't wait, she knows it's going to perfect, until she finds out that her partner is the last person, she ever thought she would be paired up with. Will romance blossom? Or, will the fiery redhead lose her self-control?_

****

The girls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry bustled around in groups, twittering and nattering, happily and excitedly. Half the population of boys looked around at the many groups of girls, nervously while biting their bottom lip as they tried to come to a decision. While, the _other half of the male population grinned at the sight of the many girls, Hogwarts suddenly seemed to hold. Winking, flirting and awarding the girls with their most charming grins were just some of their brilliant tactics to pull-a-girl, as they recalled that morning's announcement._

*

_'…I am pleased to announce that a forthcoming dance will be held at Hogwarts on Christmas eve, in five days, at night starting at eight o'clock and ending at midnight. It is called the Hidden Identity Ball. It will be -'_

_The whole of the Great Hall erupted in an ocean of chattering, cutting out professor Dumbledore's speech. Squeals and giggling could be heard from the girls and many boys either started to turn beetroot red as girls pointed at them and whispered, then dissolve into giggles or would grin and laugh with triumph instead._

_'A Hidden Identity Ball?' Fred snorted loudly._

_Everyone quieted down, as Fred spoke, and all started laughing loudly as Fred snorted at the name of the __ball, it did__ seem kind of strange and ridiculous._

_'It seems so, doesn't it, Mr. Weasley?' Dumbledore enquired._

_'Yes, but what__ is it?' George piped up, as the whole school turned to his voice._

_'I was just about to explain, until the whole school erupted into a cheer like the ones at a Muggle football stadium. Ah, yes, I was watching a Muggle football match on television over the summer -' Dumbledore stopped as he received at piercing glare from professor McGonagall, which altogether meant now-is-not-the-time. _

_'Carry on, professor,' shouted a male voice._

_'Not now, I'm afraid - perhaps another time, Ackerley. As, I was saying - the Ball will be opened to all years -'_

_A deafening applause, suddenly, exploded within the Great Hall, all the lower years cheered with delight, for they usually missed out on the dances that were only opened to the upper years._

_Dumbledore had to bang loudly on his goblet several times before the Hall went back to silence._

_'I beg you, please__, do not__ interrupt me again till I finish. I presume - you would all like to know the mystery behind the name. Students will have to completely change their look. I will explain in a minute. The teachers will pair each student with a partner from a different house to develop the inter-house relationships. Each student will be given a piece of parchment inside an envelope including a mask. On the parchment, it will give you the details, of what and how your look should be. For example: Terry Boot, our Ravenclaw prefect - sorry to pick on you Terry. Well, Terry will be given a parchment telling him to maybe change his hair color to black and his eye color blue - a spell will be written down on the parchment telling you, how to do it. Also, Terry will need to change his voice, the spell is also written down on the parchment. Terry will dress in what ever he would like to and then, he'll put on his mask to still hide his identity and go down to the Hall - here with his voice changed and completely changed identity, he will be paired with a female from a different house to be his __partner for the dance, your partner may also be of a different year - boys - you will not be paired with a girl older than you and girls - you will not be paired up with a boy younger than you. If, you have any__ problems with the spells, please do not hesitate to ask one of the teachers for help, whatever you do, don't __ask a fellow student for help otherwise they will know who you are and the whole point is to keep your identity secret. At midnight, I will ask you all to remove your masks and you can reveal who you are. The parchments will be given out during the course of today. Have a good time!'_

*

Virginia Weasley, otherwise know as Ginny, shivered with anticipation, everybody had signed up to stay over the holidays to attend the Hidden Identity ball. It was only five days and Ginny was so excited, she was about to burst!

Hermione Granger, however, did not seem to have a care for the world about it. What was so _wonderful about it? Why was there such a __big commotion about it? She thought to herself. Frankly, she would rather have had an early night in, or spent some time reading, she had been so tired lately, and she still had a lot of homework to finish! _

Ginny knew whom she would like to go with to the Ball, she was in her fifth year now and she had liked him since her first year! _Harry Potter! But, she knew she wouldn't be paired up with him because you were paired up with someone from a different house. God! I hope it isn't __Malfoy, she thought! I would surely die and Ron would kill him! Even if you could have chosen your own partners, Ginny knew that __famous Harry Potter still wouldn't have asked her to the Ball. He only thought of her as a younger sister, regarded her as his best friend's younger sister, she thought bitterly._

*

'Weasley, Ginny!' A voice called.

Ginny rushed up to collect her envelope; concealed inside would be the information to her secret identity change. After she collected it, she rushed upstairs to her dormitory and flopped down on the bed and tore the envelope open.

**Gryffindor – Female:**

Hair color: **Auburn**

Spell: _Hairius Changio Auburn_

Point at hair with wand and say incantation. 

Eye color: **Hazel**

Spell: _Lensea Changio Hazel_

_Point at eyes with wand and say incantation._

Voice spell: _Voicali Adaptati_

Point at vocal chords or throat and imagine what you want your voice to sound like and say incantation with the sound of voice still concentrated in mind.

**Happy Changing! Merry Christmas!**

Ginny looked down at her mask that had fallen out the envelope. It had a felt mask part with eyeholes, which was in the color of sliver, and it had a few sparkly sliver stars sewn out it, and hanging down from it was a light creamy white piece of material, like see-through silk. Ginny tried it on and looked at herself in the mirror. The felt mask part covered from the top of her eyebrows to half way down her cheek, which was just at the bottom of her nose and the white piece of material hung down, shielding the rest of her face from view. It was ravishing.

Ginny sighed with happiness and pleasure; she just couldn't wait till the day of the ball - Christmas Eve! It just couldn't come soon enough!                                                                                   

*

_She leant against him, as they swayed together in perfect timing to the music. He smelt of cologne - expensive cologne - 'Midnight Boy' - to be exact. _

_Ginny had always wanted 'Midnight Girl' perfume, but since it was designer perfume - she couldn't afford it. Her parents couldn't even afford it for her as her Christmas present - what with all her brothers as well. _

_This boy surely must be rich and wealthy to buy designer wear, Ginny thought. But, money wasn't always everything - sure it would be nice._

_Ginny had heard of the designer Muggle perfume 'Tommy Boy' and 'Tommy Girl' and they had surely copied it from us - wizards and witches. _

_The song ended and Ginny stepped back and looked at him, he had slightly long wavy dark brown hair - the same color as Harry's. Ginny shook the image of Harry away from her mind - it isn't Harry, they wouldn't pair a Gryffindor with a Gryffindor, she hissed to herself. _

_She looked back up at him and saw that his eyes were blue through the eyeholes of his black mask, which covered his whole face - it was kind of creepy. But, he seemed to have such a kind nature and Ginny smiled. _

_She leant against him and he just held her and they swayed together slowly and softly, although the song that had just started was a fast hip-hop one. Just, then - he lifted her head and bent down and kissed her on the cheek - Ginny felt herself blush. She stared at him with her changed color hazel eyes and he bent down and was about to kiss her on the lips, he was just so close -_

Ginny shot up in bed - panting and sweating. The dream had seemed so real; she wouldn't have been surprised if he had suddenly materialized right in front of her in mid-air. She could smell him, she could feel him - it had felt _so realistic._

Ginny always used to think, how could a dream be so realistic? She didn't get it, but now she knew. 

Strangely enough, the boy reminded her of _Malfoy! It couldn't have been! Calm down Ginny, she told herself._

Ginny regained her breath and lay back down on her bed and soon enough, she fell asleep again.

*

The next day, Ginny had forgotten all about the dream and she woke up cheerily with no troubles in her head. All lessons were cancelled that day, for it was a whole Hogsmeade day for all the pupils of Hogwarts to buy something new to wear to the Hidden Identity Ball or just as a break from work - it was a Christmas treat, according to the teachers.

Hermione had decided to stay in because she had said she had lots of homework to do and since she was going to the Ball, she wanted to finish all of her homework.

Ginny went to Hogsmeade on her own; since Hermione hadn't come and she didn't really want to tag along with Harry and Ron. Anyway, she had wanted to buy a new dress robe out of her birthday money, that she had saved up - alone and then, nobody would know what she was going to wear.

Ginny went into Gladrags Wizardwear, well, she just about managed to get in because the shop was so crammed up with people that the front door could barely open.

'I'm sorry, dear, but it's a bit full at the moment, would you like to come back later?' An old woman called to her from behind the counter.

Ginny went back out the door muttering, "a bit full?" to herself, until she found her feet carrying herself to the Three Broomsticks, she went inside the crowded place full of noisy people and went up to Madame Rosmerta and ordered herself a butterbeer.  She spotted Harry and Ron in a spot at the back and went over to join them with her butterbeer.

'Hello, Ginny!' Ron and Harry greeted.

'What have you two been doing?'

'Not much, I stocked up on some Dungbombs, sent a package to mum and me and Harry bought some sweets at Honeydukes, what about you?'

'Nothing much, only really just got here, I might go to Honeydukes after I've finished my butterbeer.'

'Have you seen Hermione, anywhere?' Harry asked her.

'No, she said she was staying in to finish off some homework, didn't she tell you?'

Ron spat out a mouthful of his butterbeer, 'Staying in? Doing homework?' He managed to squeak.

Ginny kicked him under the table, receiving a "ouch, that hurt, Ginny!" from Ron.

'No, she never told us,' Harry said, diverting Ginny's attention from Ron, as Ron massaged his leg from under the table.

'Oh, probably didn't want any remarks from a certain _male redhead,' Ginny said, glaring at Ron. _

Ron glared back, 'Shut _up, Ginny!'_

'Fine, then! I'm _going!' Ginny said drinking the remains of her butterbeer, and then storming out of the Three Broomsticks._

'_Good riddance!' Ron muttered under his breath, after Ginny had gone._

*

'_Stupid Ron!' Ginny muttered under __her breath. She didn't like rows of __any sort within her family, but __Ron was truly __annoying, he __always seemed to touch a nerve. Well, maybe, she __shouldn't get into a temper so quickly; probably it was just her hormones playing up, after all, she __was fifteen! Maybe - it was just because she was a redhead - redheads were known for their fiery tempers - including __Ron! She chuckled to herself._

Ginny went round Hogsmeade on her own for a while - first, she went into Honeydukes and _seriously considered buying Ron an acid pop, but thought better, she wasn't __that mean - she bought him a chocolate frog instead. Then, she bought a bag of sugar quills for Hermione and herself to share, Hermione really did need a break - the Ball would do her good, get out once in a while._

Then, her last stop - she went back to Gladrags Wizardwear to chose an outfit for the Ball. The old woman was still behind the counter and the shop was deserted, everyone had gone. She looked down at her watch; she saw that she only had fifteen minutes left before she had to get back to school.

'Hello, dear, less busy now, but we are closing up in ten minutes or so - you'll be our last customer, ' said the kind, old woman behind the counter, 'What would you like? There isn't much left, most of it has been sold.'

'I'm not sure, what do you have? I don't have much money though, do you have anything - not too expensive, maybe second-hand or on sale?' 

'Hmmm…let me think. What's your name, dear?'

'Ginny.'

'Ginny, pretty name! Now, let me think…hmmm…ah, yes! Hold on a minute, dear while I just go to the back of the store, have a look around, the sales are just in the far corner,' the woman said, pointing out the robes that were on sale.

Ginny looked through the robes on sale, she held out a pale blue robe with a flowing skirt with a big sash at the back. It was very pretty, but maybe a little bit too young for Ginny, and it wasn't _too expensive - well, if the woman couldn't find anything, then Ginny would buy this. It wasn't __that bad. _

Ginny turned around at the voice of the woman, 'Ah, here it is, dear - what do you think?' she said, holding out a cross between sliver and white dress robe which was slightly off the shoulders and was gathered at the waist and had a few tiny sliver stars scattered along the bodice, the bottom half or the skirt part of the robe hung down and slightly flowed out and the back of the skirt was fuller and hung down, so that it would trail on the floor like a wedding dress when worn. 

It was beautiful! Ginny couldn't take her eyes of it. It looked as if the dress was made for her mask - it matched perfectly. The material looked like it was made out of - silk. It was beautiful, astonishing and dazzling. But, it looked too expensive. Ginny didn't even want to know the price.

'How much is it?' Ginny said, timidly.

'Well, we tried to sell this ages ago but it wasn't much of a hit and when I saw you, it seemed like the perfect size. How much money do you have?'

Ginny held out all her money, she only had, 'Fifteen galleons,' she said.

'Let me have a think - would you like to try on the dress first to see if it fits?'

'Yes, please.'

The woman gave her the dress and pointed out the dressing room. Ginny went inside a cubicle, took off her school uniform and delicately put on the dress robe.

Ginny stepped out of the cubicle and looked at the vast mirror on the wall. Her breath caught in her throat. It was beautiful! She didn't feel or look like Virginia 'Ginny' Weasley - she felt like a princess! 

'Beautiful,' the mirror whispered.

'Thank you,' Ginny whispered back.

Ginny had never felt like she had wanted anything so badly. The dress fitted so perfectly. It was slightly off the shoulders without revealing anything, although Ron and her mother might not approve. It clung around her waist showing off her slim, petite figure, making her look taller. She walked around in the dress and looked in the mirror as the back of the dress trailed delicately behind her. She smiled.

'Well, that dress _certainly was made for you!' said the woman, coming into the dressing room._

Ginny jumped, startled at the voice.

'Since, that dress is such a wonderful fit on you, I will agree to the price of seven galleons for the dress.'

'Seven galleons?' Ginny gasped.

'Seven galleons, dear,' said the woman nodding.

Ginny hugged herself with joy and ran up to the woman and hugged her, and couldn't stop thanking her.

'Thank you,' Ginny said laughing with joy.

'Now, you better get changed, I have to close and I figured that you have to get back to school in a few minutes, am I right?'

Ginny snapped out of her joy, 'Oh, yes. School!'

She dashed back into the cubicle, taking awful care in taking off the dress, quickly changed and rushed out off the cubicle to the front counter off the shop and paid her seven galleons for the dress.

'Goodbye, dear, have a lovely time, could you changed the open sign to closed for me?' the woman said to her waving her goodbye.

'Of course,' Ginny said, changing the sign from open' to 'closed.'

'Thank you, dear, you're a darling.'

'No, thank _you!' Ginny said happily and rushed out off the shop with her dress in her bag._

'Have a magical time, Ginnerella!' The woman chuckled to herself with a twinkle in her eye and went into the back of the shop.

*

Soon enough, the day of the Ball arrived and soon enough, it was night. Only an hour left to go before the Ball started. Each and every single dormitory in Hogwarts School was split into four sections for four people shared a dormitory, there was also a door in each section that when opened you would arrive in front of a door that led to the Ball.

Ginny shivered with excitement and anticipation, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately. She didn't fully understand exactly _why she was __so excited - she just __was. _

Ginny got changed into her stunning dress robe; she was hoping to knock a certain boy (Harry Potter) out of his senses when she revealed who she was at midnight. Right, she then thought to herself - on with the spells.

Ginny got out her wand and took it her hands and pointed at her flaming red hair and muttered, '_Hairius Changio Auburn!' _

Hair suddenly flew all over her head like it was alive and then it settled down. It _felt different. Ginny didn't dare look in the mirror yet; she wanted to know __how much different she looked, when she had finished._

'_Lensea Changio Hazel!' Ginny said, as she pointed at her eyes with her wand. _

Her eyes flew shut and Ginny couldn't open them, when she tried and there was this strange cold feeling washed over her body, then her eyes flew open. Ginny blinked a few times and then it was the last thing she to do to complete her secret identity - 

'_Voicali Adaptati!' Ginny said pointing her wand at her throat. Her throat then felt as if it was on fire swirling round and round, it was starting to burn and her eyes started to water - then it died down._

'Hello?' Ginny croaked with her voice.

Ginny dried her eyes with a tissue and then said, 'has this worked?' Her voice was exactly how she had imagined it to be, it was strange and _weird! She had imagined it to sound like the voice of a Muggle actress, she had seen over the summer, her name was Natalie Portman and Ginny had seen her, while watching a film on Muggle television called 'Star Wars Episode I: The Hantom Menace' as she remembered, or was it 'The Phantom Menace?' Well, she was very, very, very pretty and Ginny liked her American sounding voice. _

Ginny closed her eyes and felt her way to her mirror, and then she slowly opened her eyes. She looked at the beautiful stranger staring back at her, with her auburn hair and beautiful hazel green eyes. This wasn't Ginny Weasley. This was a stranger - a princess! Tonight, is going to perfect, she thought.

Her hair was more brown than her usual red hair and her eyes were a different color, other than that - she looked pretty much the same, except, she had never felt so beautiful in her life.

Ginny put some sliver eye shadow on here eyes and some pink lip gloss on her lips. Then, she cast a spell on her new auburn hair and it arranged itself into a French twist bun. She, then, put on her sliver, sparkly, glittery sandals and steadied herself as she regained her balance on the high heels. Then, Ginny put on her mask, checked in the mirror one last time, and then went through the door that was going to take her to the Ball…

*

"GRYFFINDOR's WILL BE PAIRED WITH SLYTHERIN AND RAVENCLAW WITH HUFFLEPUFF" the sign bore on the entrance door to the Ball.

Many Gryffindor's behind Ginny groaned, well, at least Ginny assumed they were if they weren't Gryffindor's, then they would be Slytherin's.

Ginny wasn't altogether happy with the idea of being paired up with a Slytherin, but she was determined to enjoy herself all the same.

She went over to join the Gryffindor queue, where she would soon be paired up with her partner, there were four lines to queue up - one for each house. Ginny noticed professor McGonagall was pairing them up and she didn't seem to happy at pairing Slytherin with her own house - what Ginny _didn't notice, however was that many of the male population were looking at her, whoever would be her partner would be __very lucky, indeed, they thought. Ginny seemed to turn heads wherever she went that night and she was completely oblivious to it._

Soon, it was Ginny's turn and she turned to look at the Slytherin she was paired up with. A sense of deja-vu washed over her as she stared at her partner. The dream she had, had a few nights earlier came rushing back. He was tall, taller than her by about a head; he had wavy, loose, dark brown - exactly like in her dream and he was wearing a black mask - not covering the _whole of his face but __half and behind it were startling blue eyes._

'Coming?' He said to her, holding out his arm.

'Er - erm - y - yes,' Ginny stumbled over her words as she stared at him, she took his arm and then they walked together through the big, grand doors to the Ball.

Ginny's breath caught in her throat as she stared at the amazing transformation the Great Hall had taken place. From ceiling to floor was covered in either sliver or gold, crystal chandeliers hung on the ceiling, casting rainbows around the room reflected by spotlights on the ceiling. It was breathtaking!

'_Wow,' Ginny breathed._

'Quite a picture, don't you think, my little partner?' Her partner said, next to her.

'Yes, yes - it is,' Ginny replied, her partner seemed very - well - _nice for a Slytherin, 'Your house __is Slytherin, right?'_

'Yes, Gryffindor's _were paired up with Slytherin - hey, I don't want to keep calling you my partner each time, so think of a name and I'll call you by that, shall we?' He asked her._

'Hmmm…call me 'Belle' as in 'Belle of the Ball,' Ginny told him.

'Yes, that _certainly fits you, you __are quite a beauty in this room, you have been turning many heads, since we entered, and I see that many females are getting __quite jealous,' He laughed._

Ginny giggled, 'What's _your name?'_

'Erm - let me see - what do you want to call me?'

'I don't know, it is _your name.'_

'Quite right, Belle of the Ball. How about Beau, to match Belle? I know it sounds terribly bad but it was the first thing that came into my head.'

'No, it's all right, we just needed a name for each other, that's all, _Beau.'_

Beau laughed, 'Does sound bad!'

'So, what do you want to do?'

'Well, I did come here to enjoy myself, and a Ball is for dancing. So, would you care to dance, Belle?' He said bowing.

Ginny curtsied. 'Of course, you may,' she said holding out her hand. Beau took it and led her to the dance floor. It was a fast song and they both moved to the rhythm of the beat together, Ginny shrieked with laughter, she hadn't had this much fun in ages. He twirled her round and round and swung his arms in the air in a silly, childish way that made Ginny laugh. Ginny followed suit, till they were both out of breath.

'That - that - was - fun,' Beau panted.

Ginny giggled, 'You're just not as fit as me, you need to get some exercise!'

'Excuse me!' Beau said in mock horror, 'I'm the Slytherin -' He stopped.

'Slytherin what?' Ginny asked puzzled.

'Nothing, nothing - nearly gave myself away.'

'Now, we don't want that, keep that until midnight - more mystery!' Ginny teased.

'Do you want to dance again or get a drink?'

'Drink please, I'm thirsty!'

'So am I, come on, Belle.'

They walked together, over to the drinks table and Beau got them both some pink colored liquid drink.

'What _is this?' Beau said looking down at the drink._

'You got it, don't ask me!'

Beau took a sip, 'Hmmm…not bad, actually.'

Ginny took a sip, it tasted like sweetened sugar with a hint raspberry, 'A bit sweet though.'

'Mmmm,' Beau mumbled.

They took a seat and polished off their drinks. Ginny tried to dare herself to ask Beau to dance; she wanted to _badly, because she liked him __a lot. He was so much fun. But - he seemed to read her mind._

'Want to dance again?' He asked her.

Ginny didn't reply, just took his hand and led him to the dance floor. The song came on; it was a slow Muggle song.

_"It's gonna be me baby  
It's gonna be good baby  
  
Time I have been patient for so long  
How can I pretend to be so strong?  
Who can I choose baby?  
Feeling its true baby  
If I'm asking you to hold me tight   
then it's gonna be all night"_

Beau drew her close and Ginny rested her head against him, he wrapped an arm protectively around her. This is life, Ginny thought to herself.

_"It's gonna be Love  
It's gonna be great   
It's gonna be more then I can take  
It's gonna be free  
It's gonna be real  
It's gonna change everything I feel   
It's gonna be sad   
It's gonna be true  
It's gonna be me baby  
It's gonna be you baby  
It's gonna be...Its gonna be Love  
  
Time can not rest our love to be fool  
How can you pretend to be so cruel?  
Maybe it's me baby  
Maybe it's you baby  
Maybe it's everything we've been dreaming of  
We waited long enough"_

Ginny leant against him, as they swayed together in perfect timing to the music. He smelt of cologne - expensive cologne - 'Midnight Boy' - to be exact. 

Ginny had always wanted 'Midnight Girl' perfume, but since it was designer perfume - she couldn't afford it. Her parents couldn't even afford it for her as her Christmas present - what with all her brothers as well. 

This boy surely must be rich and wealthy to buy designer wear, Ginny thought. But, money wasn't always everything - sure it would be nice. Ginny then realized, that these thoughts were exactly the same as the ones that went through her head in her dream. Ginny stiffened - this was all too strange. Like fate or something.

'What's wrong?' Beau asked feeling her stiffen against her arms.

'Nothing - nothing at all,' Ginny whispered softly.

_"Its gonna be Love  
It's gonna be great   
It's gonna be more then I can take  
It's gonna be free  
It's gonna be real  
It's gonna change everything I feel   
It's gonna be sad   
It's gonna be true  
It's gonna be your the one to do  
It's gonna be me baby  
It's gonna be you baby_

_The sooner you let two hearts beat together  
The sooner you know this love is forever  
  
It's gonna be love_

_Love needs time now or never  
It's gonna be love  
You really got to believe   
It's gonna be strong enough  
  
It's gonna be Love  
It's gonna be great   
It's gonna be more then I can take  
It's gonna be free  
It's gonna be real  
It's gonna change everything I feel   
It's gonna be sad   
It's gonna be true  
It's gonna be your the one to do  
It's gonna be hard  
It's gonna be stuff  
It's gonna be more then just enough  
It's gonna be love  
It's gonna be Love   
  
_

_It's gonna be sad   
It's gonna be true  
It's gonna be me baby  
It's gonna be you baby  
  
It's gonna be me baby  
It's gonna be you   
  
It's gonna be real  
It's gonna be love"_

Soon enough the song ended and so did the dance altogether, and it was now the time for everyone to reveal who they were. Ginny couldn't wait to find out, _who her partner was, he was so nice for a Slytherin, she could hardly believe it._

'Now, boys and girls, it has just gone past midnight, therefore this means, that it is now the time for you to reveal your identity,' Dumbledore said to the crowd of boys and girls.

'Here goes,' Ginny heard Beau mutter.

Beau caught her eye and smiled.

Ginny closed her eyes and bit her lip as she took off her mask. She looked in front of her, to reveal who she was to her date and to see which charming Slytherin had been her partner - it was -

'_Draco Malfoy?' Ginny whispered incredulously._

*

Ginny followed Draco as he led her threw the corridors of Hogwarts. She didn't know _why, she was following him and allowing him to take her to wherever he was taking her. But, this wasn't the Draco Malfoy she knew at school, the one that tormented her brother and his friends, he seemed different tonight, as if tonight was the real him, as if, during the day he was hiding behind an image. What __had happened to the Draco Malfoy she knew? He seemed so nice and __caring, tonight. __Caring - Ginny Weasley would have never dreamt that Draco Malfoy could be __caring!_

Ginny snorted.

'What are you laughing at?' Draco enquired.

'Oh, nothing - nothing.'

'All right then…' Draco said, still looking suspiciously at her.

'Where _are we going?' Ginny whispered, to try and get them off the subject, she didn't think that Draco would be all too pleased at the truth._

'Come on, I'll show you,' Draco said and pulled her arm to make her walk faster.

Draco stopped in front of a wall, took out his wand, muttered something and then a door concealed in the wall and they walked through.

'Where _are we?' Ginny said, looking around at the expensive, highly furnished room in green and sliver. There was a sofa, a television and several cushions laid around the floor, and a small bookcase._

'My secret room, I come here when I want peace.'

'It's beautiful,' Ginny whispered.

'Thank you, here come and sit down,' Draco said pointing to the sofa. He led Ginny to the sofa and they sat down.

'Thank you for coming, I didn't think you would,' Draco whispered to her.

'Nor did I.'

They just stared at each other in the comfortable silence.

'I had a great time tonight,' Ginny broke through the silence.

'Mmmm…me too, Ginny Weasley,' Draco grinned.

'What's so funny?'

'Nothing, just who would believe that Draco and Ginny would be all _alone in a secret room right now, talking to each other in a very civilized way. Everyone would think that __I had kidnapped you and be having my wicked way with you,' Draco said mischievously._

Ginny slapped him playfully across the shoulder. 'Shut up, Draco,' she laughed.

'You _know you want me, little Weasley.'_

Ginny was about to hit him again, but he caught her arms in mid-air and he wouldn't let go, 'Let me go, Draco!' She shrieked.

'No, I want my wicked way with you!'

Ginny laughed, but was silenced when Draco kissed her and he pushed her down on to the sofa as he did so. Ginny struggled at first but then she lost herself in the kiss, it was warm and gentle and grew more and more passionate. Finally, Draco broke it off and Ginny sat up gasping for breath.

'What was _that for?' She gasped._

Draco got off the sofa and walked around the room, then stopped with his back facing her. 'I don't know what happened, Ginny, I don't know what and why everything happened tonight, but I think that tonight, I was me and you were who you really were, not the girl who hated Draco Malfoy. I think we revealed our true selves tonight and because of that, I think I fell in love with you,' Draco said softly, each word biting through the tense silence around them.

'Come and sit down first, Draco,' Ginny whispered to him.

Draco went and sat down next to Ginny and looked at her, Ginny took his hands, and they were cold - very, cold, like _ice._

She gulped, 'I think I fell in love with you too.'

'Do you know what this means?' Draco said.

'Yes, yes, I do,' Ginny said as a tear trickled down her cheek.

'Don't cry,' he whispered.

'I'll try not to _for you.'_

'We can't be together, Ginny, your friends, your brothers wouldn't like it, nor would my family. We come from two different backgrounds, there are people on both sides that would pull us apart from each other.'

'I know.'

'Hey, Ginny, do you realize what we sound like? Romeo and Juliet!' Draco laughed, trying his best to lighten the atmosphere.

'You've read the book?' Ginny said surprised.

'Yes, I had to because Shakespeare was a wizard.'

'Oh - please, don't change the subject, Draco. I _know we can't be together.'_

'So, let's make this a night we'll remember and never forget, one to be strong for and hope for in the future, shall we?'

'Yes,' Ginny whispered, trying to dry her tears with her hand.

'Look up, Ginny,' Draco said softly, tilting Ginny's chin upwards, 'Do you see it?'

'Mistletoe,' Ginny said softly, looking at what hanged above her.

'And, you know what that means,' Draco grinned.

'I do.'

Draco bent down and kissed her, as Ginny wrapped her arms around him for their _last kiss, of that night, tomorrow will be different - they will have been parted._

One day, their love will triumph all and they will be together - even, if they have to wait until it's in heaven. But, for a long, long time, they will be apart…

*

Song - _'It's gonna be love'** © ******__Mandy Moore_


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